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mverta

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Join date
15-Apr-2004
Last activity
26-Sep-2020
Posts
521

Post History

Post
#77847
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/77847/action/topic#77847
Time
I haven't decided about the audio yet... that's later. But I can promise you that "close the blast door" will NOT be in my version. Neither will the "we've stopped" line.

I considered adding the lightsaber extend/retracts at the stop frames (which I've adjusted for position), but at this time, I'm leaving them as it is. As a rule, I try to do as little as I possibly can, and if it still bothers me a month later, then I'll go back. The lightsaber extends are in the "we'll look at it again later" category.


_Mike
Post
#77542
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/77542/action/topic#77542
Time
Guys -

Personally, I don't care about being "hounded." I get it, and I sympathize. But it's not going to accomplish anything, and it makes the thread uninteresting. If the thread gets uninteresting, I and everyone else will stop watching and contributing. That would suck, since I opened this thread as a courtesy, and I've made a commitment to being a part of it, because some people have actual questions about the work.


My advice, if you find the site frustrating or misleading, or if you think it's fake or hypocritical, is to stop watching. It's not that big a deal. According to google, there are 8 billion other pages to watch which presumably will be more fun for you.

For everyone else: more updates coming soon!

Laserman - we don't agree to disagree. We agree. I'm still searching for that new LD source, which is why I'm moving on to other scenes for now.

_Mike




Post
#77175
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/77175/action/topic#77175
Time
The issues and shortcomings with the DVD's have been exhaustively debated on dozens of forums, not the least on starwarslegacy.com. I'm hoping we can keep this thread confined to discussions of the restoration, specifically... this way, new forum members can scroll through the posts and get useful information, without seeing a lot of ot rantings that we could all get off on in a heartbeat, myself included!

Just a request. Thanks, guys!

_Mike
Post
#76939
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/76939/action/topic#76939
Time
Originally posted by: ADigitalMan

Makes me wonder if he's at all remorseful for the half-assed job they did at the release.


Personally, I don't release work that I can't be completely proud of. While you can't please everybody, you always know when you've given it every last ounce of your effort. But I doubt that George Lucas feels the release was a failure on any level; certainly not monetarily. And there are no shortage of people who are genuinely excited about the DVD's. I think it would be an easy place to go, psychologically, to say, "Hey, that was a huge success, and the next ones'll be even better. So it's all good!"

To be honest, what I find most personally disappointing is the bold-face dishonesty on both Lucasfilm and THX's part regarding the production problems. When THX issues press releases insisting that everything was scrutinized using "revolutionary" processes, and there are obviously glaring errors in production, it totally devalues the brand. I find this distressing, because I always admired THX's origins as a "best possible quality assurance" program.

Lucasfilm's deflecting of the problems is "easier" to understand, as an alternative to the most expensive recall in entertainment history. While this may be morally bankrupt, I think it's phenomenally naive to expect any corporation not to act in the preservation of its profits over all else. In my world, Lucasfilm would've released the DVD's with a public "caveat emptor", saying, "the original negative elements were heavily damaged and the materials are presented 'as-is'. Future releases will address the correction of these compromises." But this would only happen in the alternate universe that is the world according to me. Very little good comes from the wishing of things to be different. This is why I've chosen to do something, if only for my own gratification. In the end, Star Wars has my life-long loyalty, because it played a seminal role in shaping my life, and I'm grateful for that every day. That doesn't mean it can't disappoint me.

_Mike




Post
#75879
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/75879/action/topic#75879
Time
Originally posted by: ADigitalMan
Mike,

Is there any plan to put up video captures of your finished scenes? The screen caps look great, and I'd love to see things like the re-rotoscoped saber in the Falcon in action.

Just wondering.


I've considered it, but there's a line there... I'm not sure I'm comfortable crossing it. Lucasfilm is watching the site and has given me a pass with the screencaps so far, and I really don't want a C&D. Not that a C&D would prevent me from doing the restoration, but it would prevent me from sharing it, and I think it's important for the effort to have a public face for so many reasons... Anyway, we'll see.

_Mike

Post
#75532
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/75532/action/topic#75532
Time
Originally posted by: Klingon_Jedi
Mike, I checked your updates and they really are incredible. I find it so amazing that Lucasfilms' army of FX people could miss what one man did not. My only complaint is that some pics are too small to really appreciate your work. Even something as small as the "green saber" looks worlds better then the DVD. Nice work, I can't wait to see how you handle the non-SE footage.



Thank you.. don't worry - larger res options are coming... it's the #1 requested feature...

_Mike
Post
#75079
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/75079/action/topic#75079
Time
Originally posted by: TR47
Mike,
I see you're on here again, why do you not answer my PMs about the order? I really did not want to bring this to you publicly but I would appreciate an answer as to its status, since I have sent you an email and 2 PMs regarding it.


1) I didn't notice the PM's until just now. This board is pretty subtle about them.

2) On the order page, I very clearly put, "Please allow 4-6 weeks for delivery" in big bold type. I wasn't kidding.

3) If you feel airing publicly your lack of patience, and failure to understand the terms you agreed to is productive somehow, knock yourself out, but I doubt it's going to have much effect on the space/time continuum. You ordered on 10/6. 4-6 weeks is still 4-6 weeks.

4) As I mentioned to you the last time you sent me impatient emails about why it would take so much time to put a shirt in a bag, etc., I do have your size in hand, and will be getting out as soon as I get a chance. Or I can cancel your order and send you your 20 bucks back. Your call.

5) Thank you.


_Mike


Post
#72858
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/72858/action/topic#72858
Time
Originally posted by: yanksno1
Just curious Mike, what % are you done? What's your time frame for this project?


It's done when it's done... just so long as it's right, I don't care how long it takes. I'm only about 10 minutes into the film, but I've done spots of things in later sections, that I'll be posting sooner or later. There are sections that are more difficult, and less difficult... the opening 10 minutes were exceptionally dense with issues...

_Mike

Post
#72753
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/72753/action/topic#72753
Time
Originally posted by: Hardcore Legend
Mike I noticed on your site that you state you use Adobe After Effects software. Is this the only software you use? And are you able to take the straight raw files and edit them, or do you have to convert like the rest of us?

Also, I did an edit on some footage from the DVD the other night and when I went to burn it for a test it said that the audio and video bit stream would add together to be too much. I understand this concept, but don't understand how Lucasfilm was able to do it, and I'm not.


No, our software principals are After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, Commotion, Shake, Maya, Rhino, boujou, Stitcher, Imagemodeler, and Pro Tools for audio. We have seats of 3D Studio Max and Lightwave around as well, and a seat of Houdini, but I think we've only used it for particle effects twice. After Effects, especially with some custom plug-ins, is a killer app no matter what anyone says, and TONS of feature shots are finished on it.

In this project, I've so far used Photoshop, Illustrator, Commotion, AE, boujou, and Maya.

As for your encoding issues, I'm not sure what the problem is. We are directly decrypting the .vob files as our DVD image source. Our encoder is Cinemacraft Encoder PRO. Our DVD authoring software is Scenarist, and we have an ac3 encoder which we use to encode the 5.1 448 streams from our master 48kHz AIFF files. We can also burn DVD-9's in house.

_Mike
Post
#72740
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/72740/action/topic#72740
Time
Originally posted by: Laserman
The other thing to remember guys when looking at the original laserdiscs, screengrabs and so forth that most laserdiscs mastered to a black level of 7.5 IRE, whereas DVDs are at 0 IRE.



To the best of my knowledge, all DVD players sold in America add setup to 7.5 IRE at the output stage, though some have a 0 IRE function cryptically called, "enhanced black".

hmm....

_Mike
Post
#72608
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/72608/action/topic#72608
Time
Originally posted by: Hardcore Legend
Mike, I'm impressed with your work on the opening crawl. I just started trying to take the DVD and do the same and it is becoming damn near impossible to get the 'horizon point' to line up.

Just alittle praise on something that may get overlooked.



Thanks... yeah, there are a lot of things actually going on in there to get it perfect... I think it's 7 or 8 layers of elements.

_Mike
Post
#72567
Topic
StarWarsLegacy.com - The Official Thread
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/72567/action/topic#72567
Time
Originally posted by: Laserman
I'm interested in what the plugins you have developed do?
(I have been using Eddie for roto and satabilising the footage, but am interested in what you are up to on the PC)
Are you going to try and stabilise all the footage, or just the horribly wobbly bits?


We've developed a few plug-ins for this project. One is a de-noiser, as the laserdisc has surprisingly visible, ever-present video noise. Our de-noiser has successfully removed the video noise without softening the image.

We also developed a saturation plug-in. Simply boosting a saturation control doesn't work because it immediately introduces artifacts into the image as it tries to recruit colors from a palette that's already been truncated. Our saturation plug-in allows us to dial the color back in without this limitation. It also allows us to easily apply the color palette from one image to another, though there are a lot of ways to do that.

There's also a sharpening plug-in we wrote that works a billion times better than standard sharpening tools like unsharp mask, which usually adds edge artifacts and other anomalies.

Another plug-in was developed for things like lightsabers and lasers (I used it to restore the lasers in the opening scene), whereby there is nearly limitless control over the shape, softness, color gradients, etc.

For rotowork, we usually use Commotion 2.x (still the best), which we also use for paint work/clean up.

I'm cool with stabilizing footage where necessary, and for that I'll usually use boujou, or Commotion, or AE, whatever works, really.

_Mike
Post
#72371
Topic
Info: holy smokes - starwarslegacy.com
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/72371/action/topic#72371
Time
I haven't checked this site in a bit, so I didn't notice this thread until now...

Couple of things:

1) About "legal vs. illegal": spirit of the law vs. letter of the law. It's illegal to take the tags off your bed mattress. That's letter of the law. No one's been arrested for it. That's sprit of the law. Posting screencaps, as I do on my site, is illegal (letter of the law) and is nonetheless permitted on thousands of sites across the internet by Lucasfilm (spirit of the law). As for the "backup" legality, etc., I'm not eager to spout more ignorant ramblings on the topic, so I'll leave that to a lawyer if the occaision arises.

2) Calling me a rambling ignoramus is a personal insult.

3) Based on the thousands of emails I've gotten since opening the site, it appears starwarslegacy.com is inspiring discussion, passion, and reverence for the OT. Just as this site does. That's reason enough to document the effort, irrespective of any distribution.

4) Lucasfilm is watching the site, too. You're just going to have to trust me on this.

5) This thread has quickly devolved into a discussion of topics peripheral to the restoration itself, and that's fine, but there isn't really any reason for me to follow it. I have expressed my hesitance to hijack any of Jay's resources, but I'll talk to him about starting a new thread.

_Mike
Post
#70885
Topic
Using the '04 SE DVD version to restore the Original (with lots of info)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/70885/action/topic#70885
Time
Originally posted by: wadetv
The documentary on the official DVD's is the most definative example that the OT still exists and was not destroyed as some have taken Lucas's quotes to mean. I wonder if the documentary maker required that the originals be used if they wanted him to make the documentary or if someone at Lucasfilm made that decision.


I can guarantee the documentary maker didn't "require" jack. But yes, an original (actually 2, I think) print was scanned long ago and is on drives at Lucasfilm, or ILM or both. I have a friend who's seen the files. Every last frame of the original is actually intact on drives, just in various stages of restoration/alteration.

Lucas's saying that the originals are "dead," or "gone," or any of that is just figurative.

_Mike